


Ghost Story

by discordiansamba



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 07:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6069859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discordiansamba/pseuds/discordiansamba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is there anything better to do around a campfire?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost Story

The fire crackled in the otherwise quiet night air, reflecting off the young teen's glasses. He adjusted them slightly, pushing them up his nose, a huge grin on his face, white teeth flashing in the darkness of the summer night. There was a tension in the air, like a thread pulled tight, threatening to snap at any moment. Tucker Foley sat on a tree stump, looking at the sea of young faces before him, made visible only by the dim moonlight and the campfire, but he didn't need to see them very well to know that all eyes were fixed upon him.

One of them gulped, a small hint of fear on his voice. "W-what do you mean by that, Tucker?" He asked, a low murmur rising up amongst the rest of the campers.

"Exactly what I meant. You all were talking about ghost stories after all, weren't you?" Tucker grinned in spite of himself, unable to help it. "It's just like I said- there's a curse on these woods."

The mummer grew louder at his words, and the children glanced between each other, sharing nervous glances. There was a nervous laugh, and the one who had made it spoke up. "T-that's not true. I've gone here for two years now, and I've never heard of anything like that!"

"I guess you've been pretty lucky for the past two years then. Maybe you'll keep being lucky, who knows?" Tucker said, quirking a brow. "All I know is that when Danny and I were kids who came here during the summer, _everyone_ knew about the ghost of the woods."

"E-everyone knows ghosts aren't really real!" One of the campers stammered. That one wasn't from Amity Park, Tucker took it.

"Oh? Then why don't I tell you kids the story, and you can judge for yourself whether I'm lying." He grinned at them, and grinned all the more when he felt a slight chill against his back. "Unless of course, you all are scared. But you guys wouldn't be, would you? After all, you were telling ghost stories amongst yourselves with great eagerness just a few minutes ago. Then again, I guess it's a different matter if it's a ghost story about where you'll be staying for the next three weeks..."

"We're not scared!" Was the chorus of responses that rang out, and their eyes fixed themselves on Tucker once more. "We can handle it!"

"Well, if you insist." Tucker grinned again, leaning back. "It happened here at this camp, over twenty years ago. The first time this place opened it's gates and took in it's very first campers, that is. It was a small group, those first few campers, and they all got along with each other. All of them except for one that is, who was always being pushed to the sidelines by the other campers. They never included him in any of their activities, and purposefully isolated him from the rest of the group, playing cruel pranks on him."

Tucker didn't glance away as he felt the chill leave his back, though he did notice some of the campers shiver, even in the warm summer night air. "Well as it so happened the last two days of summer camp were dedicated to going them going out into the woods to a designated campsite, where they would spend the night before heading back to camp. It was meant to be a right of passage, or at least that's how the camp's founders planned it."

"There's no event like that at the end of camp!" One of the campers piped up. "I've never heard of it!"

"Ah, then perhaps the question you should be asking here is why?" Tucker flashed the camper his best devilish grin, and watched as the young boy leapt, as if a cold hand had brushed against his back. "Because after the first year, the founders called off the overnight camp entirely. After all there was no way that they could continue with an event when such a horrible tragedy occurred during it."

"You see the other campers thought it would be funny to replace the instructions that the camp counselors had given them, to find the campsite, of the one boy that they didn't like." He continued, excited now that they were going to get in the swing of things. "He would spend the entire night wandering around in the dark and cry his eyes out. It would be funny! Or so they thought, at any rate." He grinned. "But unfortunately, it didn't go as planned."

"Sure, they switched the instructions without a hitch, and quickly made sure that he got separated from them when they all set out to find the campsite." He continued. "But they really should have thought things through a bit a more. After all, the camp had only just opened, the people in charge of it had only made sure the path they planned for the campers to take to get to the special campsite was clear of any dangerous obstacles. But there were other places in the woods, ones that dangerous for anyone to go into, much less one little boy."

"He didn't show up at the campsite that night at all, and the other campers didn't think much of it, laughing to themselves. Understandably, the counselors got a little worried, and spent the night searching for him. When he hadn't even turned up by morning, even with all of the counselors searching, the other campers began to get a little worried. By the afternoon, the buses had arrived to collect the other campers, earlier than scheduled. That was when they all realized something was wrong."

"What happened to the boy?" One of the campers asked, a touch of fear evident in his voice. The campers close to them rubbed their hands against their arms, goosebumps raising up on their skin. It felt really cold for some reason.

"He very quickly found himself hopelessly lost." Tucker told them. "He didn't have much of a sense of direction in the first place, it seems, and he found himself well off the beaten path. Instead of staying put and waiting for someone to find him, he kept wandering and wandering, growing more and more lost, going deeper and deeper into the woods... until he took a wrong step that is."

"As her grew more and more panicked, the boy paid less and less attention to where he was going. Maybe if he had been, he would have noticed that he was approaching the edge of a drop off point. Before he knew it, there wasn't any ground left underneath his feet, and he found himself falling into a deep ravine below. When he came too, he found that he couldn't move, and although he called and called, nobody came to rescue him, his voice unable to escape the ravine in which he was trapped."

"Did he die?" Another camper inquired, swallowing hard as they did.

"He did. A long, slow death. It took the camp staff and the search party a month to find him, and when they did, he was already a corpse. He slowly starved to death in that ravine, unable to get out, his voice unable to reach anyone." Tucker grinned. "But, that's not the end of his story it seems."

"Of course the camp continued to run every summer, although they never held that event again." He continued, eager to get to the good parts. All of the campers looked as if they were holding their breaths, anticipating what was to come. "Everything seemed normal for the next few summers, and nothing like that happened again. That is until one of the campers who had tricked the boy came back to this camp as a counselor."

"The first night he heard a faint voice as he fell asleep, and didn't think much of it. The next night he heard a voice again, but this time it was a little bit louder. And the next, and the next, and it got louder and louder each time, but he could never quite make out what it was saying. At first he dismissed it as a trick that the children were playing on him, convinced himself it was his imagination. But by the second week, he was sure that he had heard that voice somewhere before."

"On the third night of the second week, he woke up to find himself standing outside his cabin door. He had never sleepwalked before, so he thought it was a little unusual. On the next night, however, he woke up and found himself in front of the mess hall. As each night passed, he would sleepwalk further and further away from the camp, and the voice got louder and louder. And then on the second to last night of camp, he woke up, finding himself standing over the edge of the ravine."

Silence, save for the crackling of the fire. Tucker grinned. "He turned around, and behind was a pale face, with sunken eyes and skin tight over bones, of a little boy. The next thing he heard was a harsh whisper, as if the ghost's voice had worn itself out screaming, and he found himself falling."

"W-what did the ghost say?" One of the campers spoke up after a moment.

Tucker opened his mouth to reply, but before he could get a chance, a harsh voice spoke from behind the camper that had spoken up.

_"Now it's your turn."_

It took all of a second before most of the campers had gotten to their feet, their faces going white as a sheet, screams echoing into the night. Even in the darkness Tucker could make them bolting to their cabin out, and it wasn't until the last one had closed himself in did he let out a low chuckle.

"Nice impression." He said, standing up, grinning towards where the voice had come from.

"Thank you. It comes from having experience with ghosts." Danny grinned, finally making himself visible. "That'll probably keep most of 'em up all night. It was a good thing we had Sam write us a ghost story before we left, huh?" He asked, patting Tucker on the shoulder. "Maybe it'll spook them all into being good to each other."

"I'm a little miffed that you didn't let me finish my story." Tucker shrugged off Danny's hand. "I thought the plan was that you were going to blow out the fire suddenly."

"I got a little carried away." Danny shrugged. "I'm sure some of them will come and ask you if there's anything else to the story in the morning. You seemed to be enjoying yourself too, Tuck."

"I won't deny it." Tucker shrugged his shoulders. "It's obviously a fake story, but they probably won't realize it for awhile thanks to your acting. I mean come on, like the counselor the boy was haunting wouldn't at least tell someone about his sudden disturbing sleepwalking habits." He snorted.

"Well, they're kids. It doesn't take much to spook them. We could have used one of my mom's ghost stories though, if you're so worried about realism..." Danny trailed off.

"No, no way." Tucker shook his head quickly. "I only heard one of those as a kid and I was traumatized by it for months. I don't know how you managed Danny."

Danny chuckled at that, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans, before motioning towards the cabins with his head. "Come on, let's go see if we can't calm them down a little bit. It'll be on our hides if they don't get any sleep. This is a pretty nice summer job, I don't exactly want to lose it."

"It's nice being back here." Tucker said, grinning as he picked up the bucket, tossing it over the campfire, making sure all the embers went out. "And if I ever need to go anywhere in the dark, instead of using a flashlight, I can just wake you up, Mister Flashlight Eyes."

"Shut up." Danny frowned a little, punching his friend lightly in the arm. "I can't participate in any of the night events because of these damn things. It's a pain." He told him, his faintly glowing blue eyes very visibly glowering at Tucker in the dark.

"Right, right." Tucker nodded his head, patting Danny on the shoulder. "Come on, any longer and they'll think the ghost has dragged me off somewhere." He told him, heading towards the cabins. He glanced back at Danny, looking a bit curious. "Oh, that's right. Sam mentioned that you were the one who presented the core idea of the story to her. Get it from one of your mom's ghost stories?"

"Yeah, something like that." The half ghost flashed a grin at Tucker. Seemingly satisfied with that, Tucker looked ahead again. He didn't notice as a wisp of cold air slipped from Danny's lips, and didn't notice as his friends eyes turned green, glancing towards the distant tree line, narrowing at the faint, shimmering shape that floated there.

"Something like that." He mumbled to himself, eyes narrowing.

"You say something Danny?" Tucker asked, glancing back at him.

"Ah, no." Danny grinned, his eyes returning to his normal color. "Don't worry about it. Let's go make sure nobody's pissed themselves."

"Not cleaning that up!" Tucker said quickly. "That one's all on you."

"What? Ugh, thanks Tuck. You're such a reliable friend." Danny rolled his eyes, before casting another glance towards the trees. The shimmering white figure from before had vanished, but he didn't doubt that he would be dealing with it again before the camp let out.

It seemed like even when he wasn't in Amity Park, he couldn't manage to get a break from ghosts and ghost stories.


End file.
